Earlier in February, analysts claimed that Apple would sell the upcoming iPhone 8 for over $1,000. This prediction was made mainly due to the complete redesign that the smartphone was said to be going through. For the unfamiliar, the Apple handset is rumored to boast an OLED display for the first time in the history of the iPhone series. It is also expected to sport an edge-to-edge display. Leaks also suggest that the iPhone 8 will ditch the physical home button and will instead embed the Touch ID under the display.
The earlier prediction of iPhone 8 costing above $1,000 has now been confirmed by an analyst from Goldman Sachs.
Analyst Simona Jankowski has shared what she believes will be the price structure of Apple’s impending flagship. She also revealed what she thought would be the retail price for the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, which are expected to launch alongside the iPhone 8.
Pricing of the Apple smartphones
Jankowski stated that all evidence points to Apple releasing two variants of its upcoming iPhone. The first version will have 128 GB of onboard storage and will likely be priced at $999, while the second one will come with 256 GB of storage and would probably bear a $1,099 price tag. If what the analyst says is true, then the 256 GB version of the smartphone will be $130 costlier than the 256 GB variant of the iPhone 7 Plus.
However, the Goldman Sachs analyst feels that following the release of the iPhone 8, the prices of the upgraded current gen Apple smartphones would be reduced. According to her, the iPhone 7s Plus would be retailed at $769, while the smaller sibling would set consumers back by $649. Jankowski said that Apple was raising the prices following 2016’s sales, which showed that more people had gravitated toward the costlier iPhone 7 Plus model than the smaller variant.
The Cupertino-based company is looking to capitalize on this shift in the market with its next-gen smartphone.
Expected specs of iPhone 8
Goldman Sachs expects the next flagship smartphone from Apple to boast a 5.8-inch OLED display. The screen will also be edge-to-edge with no bezels. The front-facing camera will have 3D sensing technology according to the analysts.
The company is expected to improve RAM performance to make it faster and more efficient.
Even the lowest variant is expected to have 128 GB of on-board storage capacity, with the higher version housing 256 GB. The 10nm A 11 SoC developed by Apple will possibly power the upcoming device. The analysts also said that they expected a biometrics scanner to be deployed in the device. Rumors indicate that the smartphone will come with an iris scanner along with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
